Who Really Invented the Cree Writing System?

^{An exhibition at Victoria University’s E.J. Pratt Library showcases artifacts related to Cree syllabic writing and highlights the contributions of Cree people. The display will be on view until at least mid-November. (Photos by Neil Gaikwad)}

By Leslie Shepherd 

For nearly two centuries, Methodist minister James Evans has been credited with developing a writing system for the Cree language. His name appears in textbooks, letters and materials held in the Victoria University Libraries’ Special Collections. 

But new research at Vic U’s E. J. Pratt Library is challenging that assumption. Through archival investigation, community-led scholarship and scientific testing of original type pieces, researchers are working to uncover a more accurate history—one that recognizes the contributions of Cree communities.

Some of this work is on display at the library until at least mid-November, as part of an exhibition that explores the university’s history and its relationship with Indigenous communities.

Roma Kail, head of reader services, said the work is part of a bigger project Victoria University Libraries and Archives have undertaken in the past five years, involving Indigenous researchers and community members, to “try to decolonize our collections, practices and services.”

Evans was a Methodist minister, author and accomplished linguist who was posted to Norway House in what is now central Manitoba in 1840 after having worked with Indigenous communities in Ontario. He is credited with building a rudimentary printing press and metal type to print the writing system, or syllabics, representing the sounds of the spoken Cree language. 

The next year, he printed a small book of hymns, the first ever in Cree syllabics, which were then adopted by other Indigenous communities. It is often cited as the first printed book in Canada.

Evans was soon credited with having developed the syllabics, known formally as the Nêhiyaw (Cree) syllabic writing system, even though he appears to have never specifically claimed to have done so himself. And the Cree have their own stories of how the syllabary originated, which have nothing to do with Evans.

“Our current research aim is to decentralize James Evans from this narrative and shift the focus back to the community members who would have participated in his work,” Kail said.

Earlier this year Vic U’s Special Collections sent three original pieces of Cree syllabic type to the Canadian Conservation Institute for advanced imaging, 3-D scanning and non-destructive analysis of the metal alloy, Kail said. Results are expected in early 2026.

The type was purported to have been made from melted down musket balls and lead lining from a Hudson’s Bay Co. Tea chest. The tests may indicate whether he used those unconventional materials or whether they also include metals more typically used to cast type, such as lead, tin and antimony.

Cree oral history says the syllabics were a gift from the spirit world.

One of the most common versions is known as the Calling Badger story, in which a Cree man was found in the Stanley Mission area of northern Saskatchewan and thought to be dead. He was laid out for a wake but woke up and said he had been in a state of altered consciousness during which he was in contact with the spirit world. When he emerged from his trance, he wrote the syllabics down on a piece of birch bark.

Part of the current research at Vic U, and elsewhere, aims to bring to the foreground the records, traditions and stories that highlight the Indigenous communities’ relationships to the syllabics – the type fonts, syllabary, hymnbooks and more.

The Nêhiyaw syllabic research has included work with two Nêhiyaw researchers with connections to Norway House Cree Nation community members to explore ways of reaching out to the Norway House Cree Nation.